Gluten Free Flat Bread- I

The delicious and flexible gluten free flatbread made
into a wrap to hold a hot dog with all the fixings.

One thing I have missed since going on a gluten free diet is a bread substitute. I don't really care what type of bread, I just don't want it to fall apart, I want it to taste good (even when not immediately out of the oven), and I don't want it to call for any expensive, exotic ingredients that I can't get round these parts.

I've tried a few gluten free bread recipes, and I'm sorry to say, they've all been less than satisfactory. Before going on our vacation, I renewed my search to find a gluten free bread, and to my delight, I found two really amazing recipes that I am glad to share with you readers. Today I'm sharing the first recipe; the next recipe will follow shortly.

What I like about this recipe is it uses ingredients that, though they are gluten free, are still pretty cheap. There's no funky ingredients in it, other than maybe xanthan gum, but I've noticed that even though xanthan gum is pretty expensive per pound, you use just a tiny little bit in each recipe, and it works to hold together the baked goods in the same way that gluten does, so its a worthwhile investment. (Not to mention that nearly all gluten free baked goods call for xanthan gum, so you'll end up needing it at some point or another if you're on a gluten free diet.)

 The base for the recipe is millet flour and brown rice flour, which you can easily make from scratch using a coffee grinder (and flour sifter), and if you buy them in bulk, millet and brown rice are both pretty cheap grains, especially millet. (If you live locally and want to know where you can get millet cheaply, send me an email to pennilessparenting at yahoo dot com.)
The recipe also uses potato starch and tapioca starch, and while they're not dirt cheap, they're not dreadfully expensive either. I've included the links to where you can buy these with great prices on Amazon, because on Amazon, you can order these foods using your Amazon gift cards that you can earn for free from Swagbucks just by searching the web. 

I based this recipe off of a terrific recipe on Gluten Free Gobsmacked that had lots of rave reviews, and I was not disappointed in the least, even after making my own adjustments to keep it more frugal and using the ingredients available to me.

Gluten Free Flatbread Recipe

Ingredients:

1/2 cup brown rice flour
1/2 cup millet flour
1/2 cup potato starch (this is different than potato flour)
1/2 cup tapioca starch/flour (tapioca starch and flour are the same thing)
2 tablespoons yeast
4 teaspoons xanthan gum
1 1/2 cups of warm water
3 teaspoons honey, agave nectar, date syrup/honey, or maple syrup
2 teaspoons olive oil
2 teaspoons kombucha vinegar or any other healthy vinegar like apple cider vinegar aside for wine vinegar (I switch off between kombucha vinegar and homemade feijoa vinegar)
1 teaspoons salt
Spices if desired. (I've made combos of garlic and dill weed; dill weed, fennel, and cumin; garlic, paprika, and cumin, etc. Use spice combos that'll compliment the foods you plan to serve with the flatbreads.)


Instructions:
1. Mix all the dry ingredients together.

2. Add the liquid ingredients and mix well. You should end up with a texture that is somewhere between a loose cookie dough and a loose bread dough. It will be somewhat sticky.

3. Line a large baking tray (mine is the entire width of my oven) with parchment paper, and dump the mixture onto the parchment paper.

4. Dip a rubber spatula in water, and use it to spread the dough across the entire parchment paper, re-dipping the spatula in the water frequently to keep the dough from sticking to the spatula. 

5. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Once hot, put the baking tray in the oven, and cook until it becomes lightly golden both in the middle and around the edges. Very often, you'll see many bubbles or one very large bubble puffing up the flat bread.

Flat bread with one giant bubble.

Flat bread with many, smaller bubbles.

6. Remove flat bread from the oven and allow it to cool down at least half an hour, preferably more. The air bubbles will flatten, and the slight crust on top will disappear. Once cool, the flat bread will be very, very bendable/flexible, and you can use it as is, or put it in a closed bag overnight on the counter. Putting it in the fridge or freezer will cause it to lose that flexibility and have its texture change somewhat, but it'll still be delicious.

Flat bread, cooled down.

7. This is a VERY versatile bread.

Use the flat bread cut into pieces as needed. Use to make wraps, cut to bread size and use it to make sandwiches, use instead of hot dog buns, or toast in the toaster and use as you would regular toast. Even once the flat bread looses its flexibility, it is absolutely terrific as toast. (I ate mine with soft boiled eggs.) 

You can also bake this in the oven, top it with pizza fixings, and bake it some more for a totally awesome pizza. You can even use it to make pita chips!

Hot dog with fixings. Yum, yum!

I hope you enjoy this very tasty and versatile bread as much as I do!

Note- For those that make sure to soak their grains, as this recipe contains vinegar, I assume that all the ingredients aside for half the water and the yeast can be mixed together, and left to soak overnight to break down the phytic acid, and then dissolving the yeast in the water and then mixing it in. I'll have to try it next time, but don't see why it wouldn't work.

I have to say that this is such a terrific recipe that it is an absolute hit even with gluten eaters. My husband and sister in law both fell in love with this as much as I did, and given the choice between this and delicious regular bread, they took this, leaving less for ME! That's why I always double this recipe, at the very minimum, but have been known to quadruple it so that there's more than enough to go around for everyone, because if you make just one, you'll run out way too quickly!

What is your favorite type of bread, or flat bread? How do you usually eat your bread? Sandwiches? Wraps? Toast? Something else? 

Are you gluten free? If you are, what do you usually use to make breads and flat breads? Which starches, etc... Do you think you might try this recipe? What is your favorite gluten free bread recipe?

If you're not gluten free, is there any chance that my description and the pictures have convinced you about the truth of the awesomeness of this recipe that you'd be willing to try it out, even though you don't need to be gluten free?

How much do millet and brown rice cost where you live? This recipe originally called for sorghum, but it is both more expensive and unavailable where I live, which is why I replaced it. How much does sorghum cost where you live?

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